


Together We Go

by SociallyAwkwardKurokocchi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, I have no idea where this is going, Rating is for later chapters, character reveal, motherly Ladybug, probably angst, sick Chat, slow buildup
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-30 23:08:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12663339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SociallyAwkwardKurokocchi/pseuds/SociallyAwkwardKurokocchi
Summary: The victim was defeated and Ladybug returned the world to its previous state before the Akuma struck. However, she wasn’t expecting her partner to not return to his previous state.Chat Noir, her heroic, flirtatious, charming sidekick, lay unconscious on the pavement.In which Marinette and Adrien are university students and Adrien is severely overworked. Rated for later chapters.





	1. Introduction

The sun rose all too quickly and shone all too brightly into Marinette’s studio apartment window. She could tell Alya had spent the night before she even opened her eyes; she could smell bacon cooking in the kitchen. She yawned, rubbed her eyes, and sat up, throwing her legs numbly off the side of the bed. She stood and stretched, hearing Alya curse at what she assumed was oil splattering out of the hot pan. Marinette lazily ran her fingers through her blue hair and descended the steep loft staircase to the floor below.

 

“Jesus, Mari, why do I even stay over? You never get up until noon!”

 

“Hey, hey, it’s only nine-thirty,” Marinette shuffled over to the kitchen, not having the energy to argue with her morning person of a friend. 

 

“Well, you’re just lucky that I know how to cook real food. Without me, you’d eat pastries all day and get fat.” Alya dished scrambled eggs (had she brought those over? Marinette had used the last of her eggs on a batch of cookies the night before) onto a plate with a few slices of bacon. Marinette took the food gratefully; though she had a sweet tooth, she did miss scrambled eggs and bacon.

 

“Thank you, Alya,” Marinette said gratefully through a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

 

Alya waved it off as if it were common courtesy. “You let me crash here all the time. It’s the least I can do. Plus I snagged some of those scrumptious cookies you made last night. Honestly girl, I have no idea how you do it. You’re always out until so late and you still manage to whip up a new type of dessert each time I come over.” She had dished herself a plate while she was talking and sat down at Marinette’s countertop island next to her. “So? How are you and Adrien?”

 

Marinette nearly choked. “Alya, I told you, we don’t really talk anymore!”

 

“Bullshit,” Alya grinned. “Nino tells me everything Adrien tells him. I hear you’re taking a class at university with him?”

 

Marinette groaned. “It really isn’t a big deal. It’s just a required history course,” she sighed and shoveled more food into her mouth. “I don’t get it, Alya. We were all such good friends when we graduated…”

 

“Who wouldn’t want to be good friends with you, Mari? You’re the nicest person I know! And Adrien is stupid if he can’t see how hot you got--”

 

“It’s not about how I look or how nice I am,” she whined. “He just doesn’t talk to me as much anymore. Actually, he doesn’t really talk to anyone in that class.”

 

“Whatever, girl. That’s not what I heard.” Alya finished her plate of food and took it to the sink, while Marinette stared at her blank plate in contemplation. 

 

“What’s on your mind?” Alya asked after a few moments.

 

“Oh, nothing,” Marinette shrugged, getting up and taking her plate to the sink as well. “Thank you for breakfast. It was awesome.”

 

“No problem. Thank you for owning a pull-out couch.”

 

*****

 

Ladybug crept out into the fresh night air for her and Chat’s joint watch. She enjoyed the spring evening watches the most, mostly because of the weather but also because statistically speaking, less people got Akumatized during the spring and summer months. Their nightly watches would only be interrupted by the occasional petty Akuma battle of a teenager mad at their parents for being told to go to bed. (Seriously, Ladybug couldn’t believe how often Hawkmoth tried that.)

 

Chat was just arriving at their meeting spot as Ladybug landed gracefully on the roof. “M’Lady,” he called, bowing to her. Over the years, Chat had gained some muscle and grown a few inches. He was an incredibly handsome sidekick, Ladybug found herself thinking during these long patrols, and any girl would be lucky to snatch him up. She herself probably would have, if not for the flirtatious attitude (and her love for Adrien, but she prefers not to mention that).

 

“Oh, look what the cat dragged in,” Ladybug noted her partner’s scruffy bedhead. He looked as though he just woke up.

 

“Sorry, Bugaboo, I needed a quick cat nap before tonight.”

 

“What’s so special about tonight?” Ladybug surveyed the area carefully as they chatted, watching the streets for any suspicious activity.

 

“Well, nothing in particular,” Chat scratched his neck, and Ladybug almost thought she saw a tinge of pink on his cheeks under his mask.

 

“Have you been sleeping well?” Ladybug stopped her pacing across the roof, now turning to look at her partner with concern.

 

“Don’t you worry about me, Bugaboo,” Chat grinned cheekily. “I’m absolutely fine. Just the normal university stuff weighing me down.”

 

Ladybug frowned. Chat certainly didn’t look his best, even in this light. He seemed to be slouching slightly, and his catlike eyes didn’t seem as vibrant today. Something was wrong…

 

“Hey, what’s the matter? You look like you’re about to cry,” Chat was closing the gap between them and had his hands on her shoulders before she could even react. When she did come to, she could see her partner a lot closer up, and she was right, something was wrong.

 

“Chat, you look sick.”

 

“I don’t feel sick.”

 

Ladybug shook herself free of his grip gently. “Well, maybe you just need some more sleep--”

 

A piercing scream echoed from a couple blocks away. “Shit,” Ladybug muttered. She had been worrying so much about Chat that she had forgotten what they were even there for. “Follow me, pretty kitty,” she said as she dove off the edge of the roof, letting her yo-yo catch her gracefully.

 

Chat watched his partner for a minute. He couldn’t deny that she had gotten much more attractive with age; not that he hadn’t found her attractive before, but back then she had been cute. Now, his partner was  _ hot.  _ Her curves had developed much more fully, as had her breasts and hips. She was like a walking model. Of course, that wasn’t all that had changed about her; Ladybug had become a skilled young woman in the years they’d worked together. They rarely needed longer than a half hour to defeat a regular Akuma these days, and they could take it down without even needing to yell out commands to each other. They were like a working machine, functioning smoothly.

 

“Chat!” Ladybug yelled. Chat was shaken from his trance. She was standing, arms crossed, foot tapping, a couple buildings away. Chat blushed. 

 

“Sorry, M’lady!” Chat yelled as he dashed off the end of the building, using his pole to vault himself across buildings. Ladybug turned and continued towards the scream.

 

Ladybug had found the source of the scream: a restaurant employee had been fired, it seemed, thanks to Paris’s own Chloe Bourgeois due to the restaurant’s lack of dishes suitable for a drama queen. The employee was now launching empty menus at passersby, capturing them inside. She ducked down on the roof, watching as the employee got frustrated with the lack of citizens roaming the streets of Paris at night. From the roof, she could see a couple walking down the street, having no clue about the terror awaiting them.

 

Chat landed next to Ladybug with all the grace of a cymbal crash. “What’s up with this one, Bugaboo?”

 

“It looks like he’s throwing menus and capturing people in them,” she said hastily, still watching the couple. “Chat, can you distract him while I tell that couple to turn around?”

 

Chat nodded quickly and Ladybug squeezed his shoulder before diving off the roof in the direction of the couple. Chat leapt down, landing unsteadily on the ground. The victim locked eyes with him.

 

“Chat Noir, I’ll make every person in Paris a suitable dish, then I’ll have yours and Ladybug’s Miraculouses for dessert!”

 

Chat dove around the various menus being thrown his way, each hitting random objects and capturing them instead. 

 

He didn’t hear Ladybug approach until she yelled, “Chat! Watch out!”

 

The waiter had thrown a menu under his feet. Chat barely had time to register what had happened. He fell into the empty space of the blank menu page.

 

“I guess it’s up to me now,” Ladybug growled, tying her yo-yo around the victim’s ankles and yanking. He fell to his feet and threw a menu towards her. She dodged it, finding cover as she used her lucky charm.

 

The victim was defeated (the Akuma was in his menu) and Ladybug returned the world to its previous state before the Akuma struck. However, she wasn’t expecting her partner to not return to his previous state.

 

Chat Noir, her heroic, flirtatious, charming sidekick, lay unconscious on the pavement.


	2. Chapter 1

Ladybug had taken Chat away from the scene before the reporters had shown up. Not only did she not want to subject him to the lights and glamor that was the Parisian press, she was worried for his well-being and felt that she could help. All night Chat had seemed different, but different in a way she wasn’t sure any doctor could comprehend as well as she. After all, the two saw each other every night, and Chat had helped her a couple times when she had sprained an ankle or needed stitches.

 

But somehow, this felt different; as if something deeper were happening to her companion.

 

Ladybug laid him gently on her bed. Despite being a rather heavy partner, Ladybug was able to carry him the distance within fifteen minutes--probably thanks to some sort of magic she was yet to understand. He was already waking up when she had him under the covers.

 

“M-M’lady, what’s going on?”

 

Ladybug didn’t hear her earrings beeping. 

 

“Chat, are you okay?”

 

“Am I in your apartment?”

 

“It was my only option--I didn’t know where you lived, and if the press got ahold of you after that--”

 

“How long was I out?”

 

“Not long,” Ladybug sighed and brushed her hair out of her face. “You’re pretty heavy, ya know, even for a superhero like myself.”

 

“You carried me here?!”

 

“How else was I supposed to get you here?” 

 

There was a flash. “My miraculous!--” Ladybug cried, diving into her closet. Adrien covered his face with the bed covers.

 

“Bugaboo, how could you be so careless?” Adrien scolded gently, his voice muffled by the bedsheet. “My face is covered. Go get your Kwami something to eat.”

 

“Right!” Marinette dashed out of the closet and fell the last few steps to the main level. She shrieked and thought she heard Chat faintly ask if she was alright, but was too busy rushing around the kitchen trying to find Tikki something to eat.

 

Said Kwami floated by her side, disappointed. “Marinette,” she whispered, “why did you bring him here? He’s bound to find out who you are if he’s staying with you!”

 

“Are you suggesting I should have just left him there to be eaten by the press’s questions?” Marinette hissed back, opening the refrigerator and pulling two cookies out of a tupperware container. She broke one in half and gave it to the Kwami. She took it gratefully, munching off little bites.

 

“Well, that’s not what I’m suggesting, but what I am suggesting is that you find a way to help him home as soon as possible!”

 

“You think I wasn’t already going to do that?” Marinette sighed, shoving a cookie into her mouth. “Are you ready to transform again, Tikki?”

 

“Yeah, you aren’t doing anything too wild, so I’ll be fine,” Tikki said through a mouthful of cookie. “Alya was right, these are fantastic!”

 

Marinette giggled and whispered a “Tikki, spots on!” before going back up to the loft.

 

Chat was where she’d left him, sitting up and holding his head. “Hey,” she spoke softly, crossing the room and handing him the other half of cookie. “I don’t know how up you are to eat--”

 

Chat took the half of cookie quickly, mumbling a quick word of thanks before shoving it into his mouth.

 

“So,” Ladybug said, sitting on the edge of the bed now, “there’s a pull-out couch downstairs.”

 

“Bugaboo, don’t take this the wrong way, but I really don’t think I should stay,” Chat replied after swallowing the cookie. Ladybug shook her head, quickly opposing.

 

“Chat, I’ve never seen you pass out on the job. At least stay the night.”

 

Chat sighed. She was right. He was exhausted; between being a full-time university student and a model (who was becoming more and more popular with age) he rarely slept more than two hours before he was off saving the city of Paris. Not to mention how little he ate lately; he was surprised he was even able to build muscle with the lack of nutrients his body was taking in. If only he could have lasted to summer…

 

“Chat?”

 

“Hmm?” Chat blushed, not realizing he’d zoned out.

 

“I said your ring is beeping,” Ladybug smiled lovingly, and Chat melted. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad, he thought. And if they found out each other’s identities in the process…

 

“Chat.”

 

“Yes, Bugaboo?”

 

“I think I’ll take the pullout couch tonight,” she said thoughtfully. “That way you don’t have to worry about going down the steep stairs or anything.”

 

“Oh, why, thank you, M’lady,” Chat beamed. Ladybug blushed. He had the smile of a model.

 

She wondered…

 

“I’ll leave you to get some sleep,” she murmured, standing and stretching. As she did so, Chat watched the uniform stretch to fit her body perfectly. How he would love to see what that body looked like with the suit off…

 

“I-uh, thank you, M’Lady,” he blushed once more. Ladybug nodded and hopped down the steep staircase.

 

“Hey, Chat?” she called up from the bottom where Chat was unable to see her.

 

“Yes, Bugaboo?” he called back.

 

“Feel free to let your Kwami rest, too. I’ll warn you if I need to get up there for anything.”

 

Chat smiled to himself. He rarely got to see this side of Ladybug: the motherly, caring side. Not that she didn’t care any other time, but it was heightened especially in situations like these. Her motherly side mostly came out when the Akumatized victim was a child, which was rare, which made this that much more special to him.

 

Chat heard the undeniable sound of Ladybug pulling out the couch below, as well as his partner quietly talking with her Kwami. He assumed it was safe to de-transform.

 

“Where are we?” Plagg asked rather loudly. “Man, I’m beat. You got any cheese?”

 

“We’re in Ladybug’s apartment,” Adrien whispered. “Be quieter, okay?”

 

“We’re where? Why?”

 

“I’m not entirely sure. I don’t remember.”

 

“Can I have some cheese?”

 

“No, not right now. Just get some rest.”

 

“Fine, but you’d better get me double cheese next time.”

 

Adrien just shook his head, smiling slightly at his Kwami. He laid back down in the bed, curling up under the comfortable blankets and taking in the scent of his lady. He sighed. Why couldn’t he have passed out on the job sooner?

 

*****

 

Marinette couldn’t sleep that night. There was a sort of curious, terrifying feeling to having her partner sleeping in her bed--and without his superhero persona to protect him. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to reveal her identity to Chat. She liked things how they were--but did she? She had spent years moping over Adrien’s lack of interest in her as more than just a friend, and Chat wasn’t too bad looking…

 

But what if Adrien was Chat? It would make sense!

 

_ Stop that!  _ Marinette thought rather angrily to herself.  _ Getting your hopes up about this now is the most pitiful thing you’ve ever heard of.  _

 

“Bugaboo?”

 

Marinette couldn’t tell at first if the voice was in her head or not. For a few moments, she was quiet, then she called out, “Chat?”

 

“I can’t sleep,” suddenly Chat sounded more vulnerable than ever before. Marinette pushed herself off the pull-out bed and walked to the end of the steep stairs. 

 

“Can I get you anything?” she asked kindly. “A glass of milk, something to eat, maybe?”

 

Despite his exhaustion, Adrien pulled himself out of the comfortable bed. “Actually, I usually watch TV to go to sleep…” he murmured sheepishly.

 

“Oh! Um…” Marinette looked towards her TV, which was across from the pull-out. “There’s a TV down here. Do you want to switch beds?”

 

There was a moment of silence. Then, “Will you actually, um, stay down there?”

 

Marinette felt her cheeks get hot at the request. Sure, she and Chat had dozed off during night watches before, but they’d never actually slept together. There was a certain degree of intimacy that came with sharing a bed, and Marinette was nervous to allow her partner to meet that degree.

 

“If not, it’s okay,” Chat said hastily. “I’m sorry I asked--”

 

“It’s okay,” Marinette responded without hesitation. The words left her mouth before she could stop them, and before she could bite her tongue, she heard herself say, “Which side of the bed do you prefer?”

 

“Doesn’t matter to me, M’Lady,” a certain flirtatiousness weaved its way through Chat’s words. He was beginning to sound less like the Chat who’d lost consciousness and more like her best friend that she’d shared many of victories with.

 

How weird could this really be?

 


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! So I couldn't help myself when it came to an identity reveal sooo ta-da this chapter was born! Enjoy!!

Ladybug woke up with a warm weight draped over her. The television was playing in the background subtly. She reached up and rubbed her eyes, surprised when she didn’t feel a mask. Before they had gone to bed, both of them had transformed, but she must have transformed back in the middle of the night…

She opened her eyes and glanced down. There was a pale hand draped over her stomach. She gasped and pushed herself out of bed. Tikki was sitting on the nearby table with a worried look on her face.

“Marinette,” she whispered, “this is dangerous!”

Marinette resisted the urge to look back at her partner, who was still peacefully sleeping (judging by the snores). “I know, Tikki, I know. But he was hurt!”

“Yes, he was, but you should have taken him to a doctor!”

“Because I could take Chat Noir to a doctor,” Marinette whispered sarcastically.

“Marinette, that isn’t what I meant…”

She sighed. “I know.”

Without the warmth of his partner pressing into his chest, Adrien slowly woke up. “B-Bugaboo?” he asked sleepily, and Marinette’s heart melted. She thought she recognized the voice…

“Good morning,” Marinette leaned against the counter. She swore she heard Tikki face-palm.

Adrien smiled to himself and yawned. He hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in months. “Thank you for letting me stay the night.”

“Are you kidding? You’re my partner. I’d do anything for you,” she said it casually, but Adrien blushed like a fire hydrant. His lady would do anything for him. He wondered who she really was. She sounded familiar, and even without the magic of their Miraculous, he couldn’t really tell.

“Earth to Chat,” Marinette giggled. Adrien blushed even more.

“Sorry, M’Lady, I just zoned out a little bit…”

“I’ve got class at eight,” she repeated patiently. “You’re welcome to stay here and eat, take a shower, or go back to bed,” Adrien could hear her shuffling with things as she talked. “There’s cookies in the refrigerator and some leftover breakfast, I think.” She paused. Adrien was tempted to look up.

Finally she spoke again. “Chat?” she asked softly, vulnerably.

“Yes, Bugaboo?” Adrien responded.

“Just...call me if you need anything.”

Before Adrien could respond, she was out the door. Adrien was alone in Ladybug’s apartment.

*****

Adrien had taken Ladybug up on her offer and found something to eat in the refrigerator. He scarfed down a cookie and half a sandwich in less than five minutes. Plagg pulled on Adrien’s ear. “Hey, yo, you got any for me?”

Despite his attitude, Plagg truly did care about Adrien. He was in Adrien’s bag during all of his modelling sessions, and while he didn’t always get a chance to see how Adrien was treated, he heard quite a bit of what he had to deal with. Often the photographers would run through breaks, and they would host sessions over eight hours long. Plagg would be in need of a nap and he was comfy inside Adrien’s bag.

Adrien gave Plagg a piece of sandwich. He ate it as Adrien pushed himself to his feet and took the plate he was using over to the sink. He noticed the sink was full of dirty dishes. “She must not have had time to do them because I was over last night,” he mumbled to himself, already filling the sink with soapy water.

“Hey, whaddaya doing?” Plagg asked, his mouth full of sandwich.

“The least I can do is clean up for her,” he said, already busy at work scrubbing the dishes. Plagg sighed and shook his head, watching as Adrien finished the dishes and went to push the pull-out bed back into place. He folded the blankets and set them on the couch. “I think I’m gonna take a shower,” he said thoughtfully, almost to himself, and disappeared into the bathroom.

*****

Alya unlocked the apartment door (Marinette had given her the keys a while back in case she went out of town and needed someone to water her plants) and went inside, surprised to hear someone in the shower. She knew for a fact Marinette had class until eleven today; it was why she had decided to come now. She wanted to drop off a couple movies she had borrowed, but she didn’t necessarily have time to hang out.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the running water stopped, and a minute later a handsome Adrien Agreste came out of the bathroom clad in only a light pink towel. Her jaw dropped.

Adrien nearly jumped when she saw Alya standing there. “A-Alya?” he asked softly.

“Oh my god,” she responded.

“Is this your--”

“Oh my god what are you doing here,” she whispered hastily.

“I--” Adrien realized he couldn’t really explain. Ladybug casually rescued me, Chat Noir, and took me here and now I’m the only one here and also I’m naked.

“What are you--” a sort of lightbulb went off in Alya’s head. “Did you--did you sleep with Marinette?”

“Marinette?” Adrien asked. Was this her apartment?

“You must have, I mean why would you be here and oh my god she’s been crushing on you forever--”

“Marinette has a crush on me?” Adrien asked dumbly.

“What are you doing here?” Alya asked again. “I mean seriously, did you and Marinette actually hook up? Because she can barely talk to you without freaking out…”

“I--um, we have a class together,” Adrien hastily tried to throw together an explanation. “We were studying and it got late so she let me stay here.”

“Uh huh,” Alya smirked slightly. “You mean the history course that Marinette is at right now?”

“Umm…” Adrien blushed bright red. “C-can I throw on some clothes, then we can talk?”

*****

“So you were sick,” Alya said in a mock serious tone. She knew Adrien was lying. “And you ended up here.”

“It’s true,” Adrien said quickly. “I--”

“How did you know where she lived, then?”

Adrien froze up. “Well--”

“Listen, Adrien, I’m just wondering how you ended up here, naked, in my best friend’s apartment.”

Adrien sighed; he had no good way of talking himself out of this one.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to. The sound of a door unlocking startled both of them, and when Marinette pushed open the door calling “Hey, is it safe to come in?”, the shit hit the fan.

“Girl, what’s going on?” Alya asked. Marinette, who had been shading her eyes, looked up to see her best friend sitting on the couch across from her high school crush.

“A-Adrien?!”

“So you didn’t know he was here?” Alya asked, giving Adrien a dirty look.

“N-no Alya, it isn’t like that,” she hurried to set down a few bags on the counter. “Um, Adrien came over to study last night and ended up getting sick so I let him stay here,” she quickly explained. “He didn’t feel well even this morning so he stayed home from class.”

“He looks fine,” Alya said.

“I think it was food poisoning,” Adrien cut in, forever thankful that he and his Bugaboo--his Marinette--were so in sync with each other that they could come up with the same coverup. “I woke up this morning, ate something, took a shower, and felt a hundred times better.”

“Something still seems fishy about this,” Alya sighed, shaking her head. “But it’s not my business. I just wish you’d have warned me,” she shrugged.

“I didn’t know you’d be stopping over,” Marinette replied, crossing the room and sitting in her chair. She was afraid to look at Adrien. How many times had she imagined her partner really being him, and now that he was, she didn’t know what she would do.

The three sat in awkward silence for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Adrien cleared his throat. “I think I should--”

“Cha--I mean, Adrien,” Marinette corrected herself. “I really think you should stay...you might not be well enough.” She wanted to talk things through with Adrien, with this newfound discovery of her partner’s identity.

Alya interrupted. “I have to get going anyways,” she said quickly. “Seems that you two have a bit to talk about,” she winked at Marinette and Marinette blushed profusely. Alya stood and stretched, smirking over at Adrien, who was fiddling with his thumbs now. “See ya, Adrien.”

“Bye,” Adrien croaked as the reality of the situation set in. Marinette? Ladybug? The Same Person?!

There was a lot he didn’t know about his partner.

*****

“Nino,” Alya gasped breathlessly into the phone just after he picked up. “Babe. Nino. Guess. What.”

Nino spun in his desk chair in his parents’ basement. “What is it, babe?”

“I just bumped into a naked Adrian Agreste at Marinette’s apartment!”

“What?!” Nino jumped out of his seat. “Dude! They finally did it?”

“It actually didn’t sound like it,” Alya admitted. “But both of them looked like, really embarrassed. It was weird.”

“Well, they’ve been mindlessly flirting with each other forever. I bet they did and now they don’t know what to do with themselves.”

“Should we ask them on a double date?”

“Hell no! Let them sort things out. They might not even take things further. They might have seen each other naked and decided ‘Yup, a relationship with that isn’t for me’.”

“I bet not. Mari has loved Adrien since Junior High.”

“Doesn’t mean she still does after a one-night fling.”

“Whatever. Are your parents out?”

“Gone until Tuesday, babe.”

“I’ll be over in ten.”


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At this point, it was a matter of which personality would win--Marinette’s or Ladybug’s.
> 
> “What do we do now?” Adrien asked rather dumbly, now staring down at his hands. “I mean, I’ve always wanted to get to know you, but we’ve always been hiding behind our Miraculouses that we could never really go do anything without being tailed by the press…”
> 
> “I...suppose we could go do something."
> 
> “Well, Bugaboo,” Adrien said with a charming smile, “may I take you to lunch?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there everyone! I'm very sorry for how long this chapter took, I've just been very busy what with semester ends and winter sports going on. I hope you're all doing well! I'm really excited for the upcoming chapters I have planned because we'll perhaps get to see some actual romance! Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and as always drop me a comment if you've got a suggestion for how I can make this work even better!

Marinette leaned with her back to the door. Adrien remained motionless in the chair.

 

“So,” Adrien mumbled.

 

“So,” Marinette responded.

 

Tikki chose this moment to appear out of Marinette’s laptop bag. “Marinette, I told you this was a bad idea!”

 

Marinette ignored her, taking a step closer to her partner. Her heart was thumping quickly. Adrien stood up.

 

“Marinette,” Adrien whispered.

 

“Adrien,” she whispered back.

 

They slowly closed the gap between them until their faces were inches from each other.

 

“Bugaboo,” Adrien smiled shyly, something Marinette relished because she rarely got to see it. She grinned and hugged him tightly without thought. Adrien returned the embrace, the two of them laughing together. 

 

Marinette pulled back once the reality set in. All this time she had been crushing on Adrien, her partner had been flirting with her...but that partner was Chat and Chat was Adrien, so she had been turning down Chat’s--Adrien’s--flirting this entire time!

 

Her face turned red and she slumped into the couch. She buried her face in her hands. “I'm such an idiot…”

 

“Wait, what's wrong?” Adrien sat next to her.

 

Marinette peeked through her fingers. “It's so stupid,” she sighed.

 

“Well, I think I've said some pretty stupid stuff too, so if you wouldn't mind…?”

 

She made sure not to make eye contact. “It's just that I spent...so long rejecting you as Chat...because I was holding out hopes for you as Adrien. It's not like I didn't have feelings for you as Chat or anything, but it's not like I did, and…” The rest became a blur as Marinette started talking herself into a pit as she tended to do around Adrien. He supposed now he had somewhat of an idea why she did that.

 

“Hold on there, Bugaboo, slow down,” he chuckled. He sat himself next to her, closer than he would have before he knew her true identity. “This is all about some high school crush?”

 

“High school!” Marinette squeaked out in a painful laugh. “Yeah, sure.”

 

“Wait, you’re not saying…” It was Adrien’s turn to blush. “Marinette, you don’t mean...do you…?”

 

“I do,” she shyly responded. She both wanted to shut her mouth for the rest of eternity and confess the severity of her feelings. At this point, it was a matter of which personality would win--Marinette’s or Ladybug’s.

 

“What do we do now?” Adrien asked rather dumbly, now staring down at his hands. “I mean, I’ve always wanted to get to know you, but we’ve always been hiding behind our Miraculouses that we could never really go do anything without being tailed by the press…”

 

“I...suppose we could go do something,” Marinette mumbled, halfway in her own world. “But wait, do you have any other classes today?”

 

“Usually I have a photo shoot about now,” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t really see why you wouldn’t be more important, though.”

 

“Adrien!” Marinette squealed, a blush darker than her super suit coating her cheeks. Somewhere within the apartment Tikki giggled.

 

“Well, Bugaboo,” Adrien said with a charming smile, “may I take you to lunch?”

 

***

 

Sitting across from her partner felt so...weird. Marinette kept her face buried in a menu while Adrien looked at his nonchalantly. The air felt tense, as if there were things that needed to be talked about before they could fully accept this realization. Marinette kept replaying the previous night, especially the part where she woke up in Adrien’s arms.

 

“Hey, Mari,” Adrien snapped her out of her thoughts. The waiter stood looming above her, looking quite tired. Marinette blushed and closed up her menu. “I’ll just have a cup of the soup of the day, please.”

 

“Ah, your drink,” the waiter responded. Adrien cut in now, noticing her nervousness.

 

“A hot chocolate, please,” he said. She glanced across the table and Adrien just winked. The waiter nodded and went to get their order.

 

“I was gonna say--”

 

“Your favorite drink is hot cocoa,” Adrien interrupted, “because it tastes like your father’s chocolate cannoli filling. But it’s not acceptable to drink during the summer, because summer is for fruity flavors.”

 

Marinette was speechless. She remembered rambling about that to him one night during a particularly slow watch, but she doubted he would remember such insignificant detail. “I, wow.”

 

“Impressed?” Adrien laughed, and she swore she could see a gleam of Chat in his eyes. “I do listen to you, Bugaboo.”

 

“I guess that was the only proof I needed to know that you’re really him,” she sighed dreamily. “I never told anyone else that.”

 

Marinette turned to look out the window, resting her chin on her hand. She missed Adrien’s blush as she did so, too busy thinking about the countless things she told Chat: her least favorite colors with the corresponding seasons; what type of animal she would get to keep her company; which celebrities she would like to meet before she died. She wondered how much of it he retained. Then again, she could think of the days when Chat would go into detail about one of his favorite video games or talk about what kind of tattoo he would get (if any), so she supposed they were about even.

 

The waiter set their drinks down and the soft thud of her mug hitting the table brought her back to reality. As he walked away, Marinette turned to face Adrien again. She looked much more relaxed now; on the walk over to the cafe Marinette had looked as though she might explode. Adrien smiled reassuringly to her, knowing that all of this was new information and that even though he was able to process it rather well she might not have been able to.

 

“How have you been, Mari?” Adrien asked as he picked up the glass of water in front of him and took a sip.

 

“Great,” she admitted. “Spring break is coming up, and all my classes are great this semester. Living on my own is a lot less stressful, too,” she smiled.

 

“When did you move out, again?” He stirred his drink with his straw.

 

“Beginning of last summer,” she replied, sipping her drink carefully so it wouldn’t burn her mouth. “How about you?”

 

“I’m planning on moving soon,” he admitted, smiling. “Living at home just gives my dad more reason to control my life.”

 

“How have things been?” Marinette only had the slightest idea what went on in Adrien’s family life. 

 

“They’ve gotten worse,” Adrien said after a second. “My dad has been really pushing my modeling career, I’m sure you know,” he sighed. “It’s like, I go to classes all morning then I have photoshoots until around midnight every night, and there’s not a clear cut time to really eat or sleep in there.”

 

“Oh wow,” Marinette mumbled. “I really had no idea it had gotten that bad. Is that why you were…?” she drifted off.

 

“I guess so,” Adrien responded. “I’m really sorry to have troubled you like that. I’m sure it wasn’t the easiest thing to see, or to carry me to your place or anything,” he rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile.

 

“If I hadn’t, then I would have never found out about this,” she replied sternly. “I’m glad I was there, Adrien. If I wasn’t, well…”

 

“Are you ready to order?” the waiter asked patiently. Marinette jumped, wondering just how long he had been standing there.

 

“A cup of clam chowder for the lady and--”

 

“And a ham and swiss flatbread for him,” Marinette cut Adrien off, smirking. She felt good being able to counter Adrien’s knowledge of her favorite drink with his favorite sandwich. Adrien’s mouth dropped slightly, and all the while the waiter just took the orders, then walked away. Marinette smiled his way. “I listen to what you say too, pretty kitty.”

 

Adrien just shook his head and chuckled. “I sure have missed out on a lot, not knowing your true identity, Marinette.”

 

“I could say the same.” She smiled coyly, as she would to her partner after making a response that, if taken a certain way, could be considered flirting. She was guilty of that, she supposed.

 

Before their meals could arrive at the table, a piercing shriek rang through the air. Marinette and Adrien both forced themselves to their feet, stumbling over quick excuses to get away, before realizing that it was for naught and sharing a quick laugh. 

 

The moment didn’t last long as a lamp post on the street outside was pulled from the ground and thrown at some innocent passersby. Both Marinette and Adrien ran from the restaurant, ducking to avoid a flying car. The villain wore what appeared to be a football jersey and had a football tucked under his arm. He had large muscles which strained his clothes and a color scheme comparable to a 90s cartoon. 

 

“You ready, Bugaboo?”

 

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

 

“Plagg, claws out!”

  
  



	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And for the next couple weeks, nearly every battle went like this. One of the two were constantly walking out with weird injuries they would normally never suffer from. Marinette began to wonder if Tikki was right, and if she was, how they could fix things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! It's been a hot minute since I've uploaded, and thankfully I have less than a month of school left so hopefully I'll be able to update more often soon! In the meantime, here's the chapter that's been in my google docs for a couple months collecting dust!

The battle wasn’t harder than normal, at least Marinette hadn’t thought so. Yet here she was, wrapping a sprained wrist because a miscommunication led to her getting spiral tossed through the window of the cafe she and Adrien had recently left. Adrien had come home with her to make sure she was alright. He was busy retrieving ice at the moment.

 

Tikki came out of Marinette’s purse. “This really isn’t a good idea,” she said worriedly.

 

“He already knows my identity, what could be so bad about him coming over now?” Marinette asked, wincing at her wrist as she accidentally pulled the bandages too tightly.

 

“I mean him knowing,” Tikki sighed and rested on Marinette’s shoulder. “You guys were totally off today during that battle. It took you twice as long as usual!”

 

“We’re still getting used to it!” Marinette countered. Before Tikki could continue arguing, Adrien came up the ladder stairs and rested on Marinette’s bed. He gave her a small bag of ice wrapped in a towel.

 

“Has the swelling gone down?” Adrien scooted closer, where he was nearly resting his head on her shoulder. Marinette blushed as his breath tickled her neck. 

 

“Y-yeah, a little,” she held the bag to her wrist and winced slightly. Adrien leaned closer.

 

“I’m sorry, I should have seen him coming--”

 

“It’s okay, Adrien--”

 

“Still…”

 

And for the next couple weeks, nearly every battle went like this. One of the two were constantly walking out with weird injuries they would normally never suffer from. Marinette began to wonder if Tikki was right, and if she was, how they could fix things. Marinette expressed these concerns to Adrien one night while she cleaned a gash on his forearm.

 

“You think our knowing our true identities is why things have been rough lately?” Adrien seemed surprised. They had made it a habit to meet up at Marinette’s apartment after fights, especially because there were often injuries to be taken care of. Now they sat on the couch, with a rerun of some French knockoff of Friends playing softly in the background.

 

“I’m just worried,” Marinette admitted as she cleaned the wound. Adrien hissed in pain and Marinette mumbled an apology. “Tikki and I--”

 

“Tikki tends to make you nervous a lot,” Adrien noted. “Often times she’s right, but when she isn’t, it makes you nervous all the same.”

 

“Yes, but I think she’s right this time.”

 

Adrien didn’t respond. His eyes had fallen shut and he was leaning into Marinette’s touch. Marinette took the opportunity to wrap the wound, and Adrien’s brows furrowed in pain. She instinctively reached forward to rub the creases out of his forehead.

 

Over the past couple weeks, despite them suffering in combat, they grew continuously closer. As well as hanging out at Marinette’s house playing doctor, they began to study together for their classes; Marinette found that a few of their common core classes followed the same curriculum, despite them not being in the same class. Finally, they had gone on a breakfast “date” or two after very late watches. 

 

Marinette leaned forward and replaced her gentle fingers with her forehead. Adrien’s eyes opened slowly, calmly, and his stress melted from his face. His hand came up and cupped Marinette’s cheek, and she smiled gently at him. “We’ll figure it out,” he whispered with a certainty she was sure she recognized. “We’re Ladybug and Chat Noir, for crying out loud,” he added and she giggled.

 

“I believe you,” she whispered hoarsely, her gaze shifting from his bright green eyes to his bright pink lips. “Adrien,” she murmured, her hand slowly coming up to his neck. His breath hitched and Marinette wondered if he’d ever done this before.

 

“Mari,” he mumbled back, and Marinette knew he had. He leaned forward and closed the gap between their lips, eyes fluttering shut as his lips brushed on hers, carefully, almost as though he was scared. Gaining more confidence, he held the back of her head, nearly pulling her into his lap--not that she minded. Marinette’s eyes had fallen shut as she began to feel for a natural rhythm in the kiss; slow and steady but passionate nonetheless. She unleashed years of yearning in a single kiss, her hands holding onto his shoulders as if he would fly away if she let go.

 

Adrien’s arm wound its way around her waist, drawing her even closer. Their chests were pressed together now. Marinette pulled back for a split second, looking into Adrien’s eyes, then closing the gap again. 

 

“Oh, gross,” Plagg whined. The superheroes jumped apart with matching bright red cheeks.

 

“Sorry, sorry,” Adrien rubbed his neck sheepishly. “I really need to head home, as it is,” he added. He reached to grab his laptop bag, which had been left at Marinette’s apartment their last study session, and Marinette grabbed his wrist.

 

Still blushing, Marinette let her hair fall over her face shyly. “We should train,” she said rather sternly. “At least until we get back into the rhythm of things.”

 

Adrien nodded, despite them not training since they were first given their Miraculouses. “Should we meet at the tower at dawn?”

 

“Yeah,” Marinette let go of his wrist. “Yeah. That sounds good. Just like old times.”

 

“But not,” Adrien added with a smile. Silence hung in the air for a moment as the two held shy eye contact. 

 

Finally Tikki cleared her throat. “If you're going to be training at dawn, you should probably go to bed.”

 

“Right,” Marinette snapped back into reality. “Good night, Adrien.”

 

“Good night, Mari.”

  
  



	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Is something wrong?” Chat turned to face her, concerned.
> 
> “No, no, it’s not that,” she said quickly. However, she had been wondering since their discovery if Master Fu should know that they know each other’s true identities. Chat was right, they had fallen back into a comfortable rhythm in combat, but something had changed about it and she wasn’t sure they would ever recover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, has it been a while. I apologize for the delay on this one, folks. I've actually been working on a huge project with my two sisters! We have a podcast! It's been a dream of ours to create a podcast that's for our generation, and we did it! So if you're into conspiracy theories and millennial/gen z humor, please give it a listen and let me know you came from here! It's called Activated Almonds: Nutty Theories for anyone who's interested, and it's available on Spotify. With that, please enjoy this somewhat longer chapter!

Ladybug watched Chat pounce from rooftop to rooftop from her spot on the tower. Even after two months of training every weekday at the same time, he could never seem to make it there before her. He landed on the platform gracefully, playfully dusting himself off as he strided over to her. “M’lady,” he bowed at her.

 

“Good morning,” Ladybug chirped. She hadn’t been a morning person until these crack-of-dawn training sessions, it seemed. Chat pulled out his staff. 

 

“What’s on the agenda today?” he asked, leaning onto his staff. Ladybug looked out over the town; she hadn’t particularly prepared for this morning like she had every other one.

 

“I was hoping something would come to me on the way here,” she admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck as she watched the sun rise over the city. Chat moved a little closer to her, looking off as well.

 

“It’s unfair of me to make you come up with a game plan every morning,” he shrugged. “Maybe today we can take a bit of a break. I mean, you’ve got class at nine and we’ve pretty much gotten our rhythm back…”

 

“Well, we should at least do something,” she murmured. “Perhaps we can go visit Master Fu this morning.”

 

“Is something wrong?” Chat turned to face her, concerned.

 

“No, no, it’s not that,” she said quickly. However, she had been wondering since their discovery if Master Fu should know that they know each other’s true identities. Chat was right, they had fallen back into a comfortable rhythm in combat, but something had changed about it and she wasn’t sure they would ever recover.

 

The sky turned a beautiful pink as the sun inched further into the sky. Ladybug sat down on the edge of the platform and sighed. The two hadn’t talked about what happened the night they decided to train again. It had been eating at her for a long while, especially because nothing came of it, but she didn’t want to push the topic with Adrien. After all, they were partners in crime. There wasn’t anything else there. 

 

She felt Chat sit down next to her and stole a glance at him. His bright green eyes stared straight ahead, looking more peaceful and calm than they had in a long time. He looked content. Their shoulders brushed and Chat subconsciously moved away from her. She sighed and looked down at her hands; that seemed to give her the answer she wasn’t looking for.

 

“I’d like to see Master Fu again,” Chat said to break the silence after a few seconds. “He might have some new training methods for us.”

 

“Right,” Ladybug nodded, returning her attention to the ever rising sun. “We should get going, then.”

 

Their trip across rooftops was silent, aside from the few morning joggers who yelled up to them. Ladybug smiled and waved, Chat winked, the jogger snapped a picture, and their journey became quiet once more. Ladybug trailed behind Chat, her mind wandering to that fateful night. Had that been a mistake? Did Chat want to forget it ever happened? Was she stupid for thinking it was more than it was?

 

“Mari,” Chat snapped her out of her trance. They were on the building across the street from Master Fu’s. She blushed lightly and smiled, scratching her neck.

 

“Sorry,” she shrugged.

 

“You got a test today or something?” Chat asked, knowing full well that wasn’t the answer; he took the same class, just later in the day. He knew something was up.

 

“Uh, yeah,” Ladybug responded. “Big test. Very important.”

 

“Well, good luck,” he responded. A lie? From Marinette? Something was definitely wrong. Still, he hopped down into the street below, catching himself with his staff. She swung down next to him from a lamp post. 

 

Before they had even gotten through the door, Master Fu was welcoming them. “Ladybug, Chat Noir, what brings you here on this fine morning?”

 

“Master Fu,” Ladybug knelt respectively, “we have some news.”

 

“If you’ve come here to tell me about the news article, I’m afraid I’ve already seen it.”

 

“News article?” Chat knelt next to Ladybug. “What news article?”

 

“What are you here for?” Master Fu turned to face them. 

 

“Guidance,” Ladybug sighed exasperatedly. “We know each other’s identities.”

 

Chat was shocked that Ladybug hadn’t mentioned wanting to discuss this before they arrived. Master Fu noticed this, as well. “It seems that Chat doesn’t know by his expression.”

 

Ladybug glanced over at him and immediately felt a pang of guilt. She supposed he would have liked to know why she insisted on visiting Master Fu. “Well…”

 

“I knew,” Chat chuckled, trying to shake his expression. “Sorry, I must have forgotten why we were coming, what with the beautiful sunrise outside.”

 

“How is your combat?” Fu asked, despite already knowing; if they were here, there must have been a struggle.

 

“It’s getting better now, but that’s with extensive training like we did when we first got our miraculouses,” Ladybug explained. She wrung her hands together nervously. “I’m worried we’ll have to continue training to stay in sync.”

 

Fu tapped his chin in thought. “No,” he said finally, “I don’t think that’s it. Your energy is much more erratic than before, though. Has anything else happened?”

 

“No,” Ladybug blurted. Again Chat was shocked. He felt shut out by her. What was going through her head? Before he could add anything, she changed the subject. “What was this about a news article?”

 

“Well,” Fu sighed, “since you know each other’s true identities, I suppose it’s better if you both know. Adrien, it appears that your modeling career has gotten you into some trouble.”

 

“Trouble?” Chat tilted his head confusedly. He had been slacking on his modeling business, what with the extensive training and schooling he had going on as of late. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

 

“A particular LadyBlog has connected your modeling hiatus to Chat’s more frequent appearance around town,” he explained. “The article must have been well written, because its writer was featured in the daily news and given a segment tonight on channel five.”

 

“Alya,” Ladybug groaned, suddenly remembering the extensive amount of missed calls she had had when she woke up in the morning. 

 

“Is there anything we can do to keep it from airing?” Chat asked hurriedly. “Or anything to take down the articles?”

 

“It doesn’t appear that way,” Fu said dejectedly. “The connections are extremely well thought out, and if your identity is discovered, it will become that much easier for Hawk Moth to steal your miraculous.”

 

“And if one of our identities is discovered, the other will be,” Ladybug added. Fu nodded.

 

“How do we fix this?” Chat asked, nervously clawing at his legs.

 

“An option is to have Adrien be modeling while Chat Noir is fighting crime,” Fu explained. 

 

“That’s impossible,” Ladybug interjected.

 

“Not necessarily,” Adrien replied. “Marinette, I’m going to need you to be my fashion designer.”

 

*****

 

Marinette felt...exposed. Without her mask and suit, she felt she shouldn’t be on a mission. Yet, here she was, playing the part of an intern on the set of Adrien’s latest modeling gig. She had spent the morning running around getting coffee for a number of fashion legends, but still somehow she felt that any moment she’d need to disappear and transform. Oh, how was this going to work?

 

Adrien had been in his dressing room getting makeup done for about an hour now. She felt increasingly nervous about her current position; sure, this was her absolute dream, but knowing Adrien was the only reason she’d made it this far made her feel a little dependent and insecure. She tried to shove the feeling back as she listened in on the designer’s conversation with the photographer. She scribbled notes onto her clipboard. After all, nobody said she couldn’t learn from this experience.

 

Adrien emerged from his dressing room in a well-fitted blazer with patterned slacks. He looked amazing. Marinette suppressed a blush as he pushed past the designer to come talk to her. “Hey,” he smiled charmingly, “how’re the nerves?”

 

“I’m standing next to the most famous fashion designer in France, you tell me,” she squeaked giddily. He chuckled and rested his hand on her shoulder, pulling her closer in what appeared to the others to be a kiss on the cheek.

 

“Is everything set?” he whispered into her ear. She was unable to suppress this blush.

 

“The costume is perfectly tailored,” she whispered back. “All we have to worry about is the photographer.”

 

Adrien pulled back and held both of her shoulders, smiling down at her. “Thank you, Mari.” He then let go of her completely, going to discuss the photoshoot with the photographer. The designer approached Marinette.

 

“You two are friends?” she asked kindly, and Marinette nodded.

 

“Since high school,” she explained. “I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity he’s given me to be working with you,” she said a little quickly, making it hard to understand. The designer chuckled.

 

“I’m excited to be talking to the next generation of designers,” she smiled warmly. “I happened to notice a few of your designs. I’ll be keeping in touch.” 

 

Marinette inwardly squealed and outwardly grinned from ear to ear. “Thank you so much! That’s such amazing news!”

 

“Ladies,” the photographer called, “can we get you on set? Mr. Agreste has requested your input for the duration of the shoot.”

 

*****

 

Marinette had no idea how horrible it was.

 

Adrien had been modeling the same outfit for two hours now. He had not been given a break, and the photographer was a notch below screaming poses at him. He looked exhausted. Finally, the designer stepped in and requested an outfit change. The photographer scoffed, set down his camera with a huff, and called “Take five” to his crew.

 

Adrien’s facial muscles relaxed from the constant smoulder he’d been forced to hold. He approached Marinette and the designer, smiling gratefully to the latter. “Thank you,” he murmured quietly to her. To Marinette, he winked: the signal. Then, he disappeared into the dressing room. 

 

“I need to use the restroom,” Marinette excused herself. Instead of going to the bathroom, however, she disappeared into an open dressing room that was currently not being used. She pulled the perfect Chat Noir replica costume off its hanger buried on the rack of costumes. She dug into a wig box, pulling out a blond short wig, and quickly slipped out of her clothes. She was halfway into the suit when someone slipped inside the room. 

 

“Hey,” Adrien whispered behind her and she jumped three feet into the air. He chuckled breathlessly. “I was just--” It was then that Adrien noticed Marinette had only slipped the costume up to her waist.

 

“Adrien,” Marinette said in shock, covering herself with her hands as best as she could. She blushed a bright red color. “I’m--”

 

“So sorry,” Adrien finished her sentence, covering his eyes. “I was just--um, just coming to--to let you know the photographer--”

 

“Yes?” Marinette quickly pulled the costume up the rest of the way. “Can you zip this?”

 

“U-um! Yes!” He uncovered his eyes and very carefully zipped the costume. “He’s coming back from break, so--um, whenever you’re--ya know, ready…”

 

As Adrien stumbled over his words, Marinette pulled her hair into a bun and tucked it into the wig. Adrien had to admit, the way she’d designed the costume compressed her chest enough to make her look like Chat--at least, from afar. Marinette crossed the room, dug through an open makeup kit on the counter, and luckily found a pair of bright green contacts. She pulled her own mask out of her back and placed it on her face.

 

“Wow,” Adrien whispered. From outside of the dressing room, the two could hear Adrien’s name being called. “That’s my cue,” he said, turning to leave. Before he did, however, he reached forward and cupped Marinette’s cheek gently. “Good luck, M’Lady,” he said softly. Marinette nodded, nuzzling into his touch. They remained like that for a few seconds, then Adrien turned and left the dressing room.

 

Marinette messed with the wig, trying to make it look as close to Adrien’s hair as possible. After a few minutes, she shook out her nerves; something about being Chat made her more nervous than being Marinette. She ducked out of the dressing room cautiously, hiding behind a corner. Finally, after gathering the nerve, she ran from behind the corner, springing into the air. For the sake of catching everyone’s attention, she did some acrobatics. She ran between Adrien and the photographer and designer, who both stood dumbfounded. 

 

Adrien gasped. “Snap a picture!” he called to the photographer, who was shaken from his trance and snapped as many photos as he could. Faux-Chat waved to the camera, smiled, and disappeared through the nearest door.

 

Once she was out in the hallway, Marinette looked around frantically for the nearest bathroom. She found one down the hall a bit and ducked inside. Once inside and safely in a stall, Tikki came out of her pocket.

 

“Marinette,” she sighed, “you’re crazy.”

 

“I know,” she panted. “That was kind of fun!”

 

Tikki just laughed. Marinette leaned against the wall, sliding down it slowly and smiling to herself. “Being Chat feels so weird.”

 

“It looks weird, too. C’mon, the designer is waiting for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I feel really bad about how long this took, and I've been hit with a wave of creativity lately, so I'm going to try and release two chapters tonight! The next one is going to be straight fluff (I think) so hopefully you guys enjoy! Thanks so much for reading and as always let me know if you have any comments!


	7. Chapter 5.5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey, can I ask you something?”
> 
> “What’s that?” Adrien finished the first half of the sandwich and moved on to the second half.
> 
> “What’s happening between us?”
> 
> Adrien almost choked. “Well, what do you mean?”
> 
> “I mean, you saw me half naked earlier,” she deadpanned, “and we made out that one time…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a quick little fluff chapter as an apology for the belated update! Thank you all so much for your patience with me! I hope you enjoy this short drabble; it was certainly very fun to write. Please leave a comment and a kudos if you enjoy so I know what you guys are interested in reading! Until next time!

Adrien finished his photo shoot ten hours later. Marinette had stayed the entire time, even guiltily going to dinner with the designer while Adrien was photographed. She had gotten him something to eat for when he was done and kept it in her bag. When the photographer was satisfied, Marinette followed him into his dressing room. At that point, most of the crew had gone home, so they were alone. While Adrien slipped off the denim jacket he was wearing, Marinette pulled the take-out box out of her bag.

 

Adrien plopped down on the couch and she brought the box over to him. “I got you something to eat,” she smiled kindly. “I felt really bad when the designer asked me to go to dinner,” she admitted.

 

“You didn’t have to get me anything!” Adrien insisted, still taking the box. “Thank you very much, Mari.” He opened the box and took half of a sandwich out. Despite having not eaten during the entire shoot, he ate slowly, seemingly savoring each bite. “This is delicious,” he whispered in between bites.

 

“How did Faux-Chat go?” she asked, sitting down across from him on another couch. He smiled at her.

 

“The photographer couldn’t stop talking about how he’d gotten a picture of Chat Noir. So, I’d say pretty good.”

 

“That’s amazing news!” she sighed happily. “I was hoping it wouldn’t look fake.”

 

“That costume looked perfect,” he responded, taking another bite. “It made you look just like me. I don’t know how you did it.”

 

“Thank you,” she blushed suddenly, remembering what had happened in the dressing room. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

 

“What’s that?” Adrien finished the first half of the sandwich and moved on to the second half.

 

“What’s happening between us?”

 

Adrien almost choked. “Well, what do you mean?”

 

“I mean, you saw me half naked earlier,” she deadpanned, “and we made out that one time…”

 

“I--” Adrien froze as there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” he called.

 

The designer came in. “Ah, Marinette, I hoped you’d be in here,” she said smoothly. Crossing the room quickly, she slipped a business card into the girl’s hand. “I meant to give this to you earlier, but then Chat Noir showed up and caused a panic,” she chuckled. “Please, give me a call.”

 

“Thank you so much!” Marinette stood and shook her hand excitedly. “This opportunity means the world to me. I will definitely give you a call.”

 

“Well, my company is based out of Montpellier, so it’s a bit of a drive,” she admitted, “but I’d love for you to be an intern.”

 

“That’s a lot to consider,” Marinette admitted. 

 

“Please do consider,” she responded. She then looked to Adrien. “I don’t know how you managed to charm this young lady, but you’d better not let go of her; she’s going places, too.”

 

“Oh, we’re not--” Marinette started to say, but Adrien cut her off.

 

“I don’t plan to, Madame. Thank you,” he smiled charmingly to Marinette. The designer nodded with a smile and left the room. Marinette stared at Adrien, dumbfounded.

 

“To answer your question,” Adrien said, setting the now empty take out box aside, “you’re my partner in crime. What’s happening between us is meant to happen, I think.” He stood up and reached for her hand. “Is that okay?”

 

Marinette nodded slowly, taking his hand in hers. She moved it to her hip and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight embrace. “They really do overwork you,” she mumbled into his shoulder. She felt his breath on her neck as he nodded his head. Without thinking, she followed her statement with, “Do you want to come over?”

 

*****

 

Marinette went into the kitchen to pop some popcorn. Adrien sat on the couch, setting up a movie for them to watch. She put the bag of popcorn in the microwave and shuffled across the room in her fuzzy socks towards him, plopping down on the couch next to him. Tikki and Plagg both sat in the chair, covered by a small bandana as a blanket. Adrien pulled a blanket off the back of the couch for him and Marinette to use.

 

“Sorry about the heating,” Marinette mumbled sheepishly. “This happens sometimes when you have cheap rent.”

 

“That’s okay! It just gives me more a reason to be close to you,” Adrien said smoothly, but his blush revealed his nervousness. Marinette giggled, hearing the microwave beep. She got up to go get it while Adrien hit play on the movie. Marinette split the popcorn into a large bowl and a small one: one for her and Adrien, and one for Tikki and Plagg. She carried the two bowls into the living room and plopped back down on the couch after giving the Kwami their popcorn.

 

Adrien lifted up the blanket to let her underneath. She carefully nuzzled into his side as he wrapped his arm around her; despite having been so close for so long, this was unexplored territory for them.

 

The group only managed to get through about twenty minutes of the movie before they were all yawning. Finally, Marinette admitted what they all were thinking. “Maybe we should go to bed.”

 

“I’m fine with that,” Adrien also admitted. The Kwami nodded sleepily. Somewhere along the way they had also nuzzled into each other.

 

Marinette stood and stretched. “I’ll pull out the bed, if you wanna sleep down here--”

 

“Please,” Adrien grabbed her wrist. “Um, please, can I sleep with you?” He hung his head like a shy little kid and Marinette couldn’t help herself from feeling a little bad for suggesting they don’t sleep together.

 

“I, um, okay,” she blushed, nodding. “I think you left some of your clothes here from last time, if you want to change into those to sleep…”

 

“That sounds alright, yeah,” he murmured sleepily. The two Kwami were already asleep on the chair, so Marinette hushed her voice and tiptoed around the chair towards the loft stairs. Adrien followed her up.

 

Once in the loft, Marinette slowly took her shirt off, facing away from Adrien. He faced the other way and changed into the clothes she had been talking about. Both stole glances at each other shyly, like two high school crushes who weren’t able to tell that the other had a crush on them, too.

 

Marinette put her pajamas on and flopped herself down on the bed. Adrien followed suit, staring up at the ceiling. “What are we?” Marinette asked softly.

 

“Superheroes,” Adrien responded with a cheeky, sleepy grin. Marinette smiled over at him. 

 

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

 

He rolled onto his side and propped his head up with his elbow. “What do you want us to be?” he asked. “Do you want this to be a friends-with-benefits sort of thing?”

 

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “If word gets out that Ladybug and Chat Noir are together…”

 

“But if Adrien and Marinette are together?”

 

“I’m worried we’ll slip up.”

 

“We’ll be careful.”

 

Marinette didn’t have a response to that. She wrapped her arm around his waist and curled into him. “I’m scared,” she admitted finally. “What if we never go back to normal?”

 

“Mari, I’m not sure you want to go back to normal after this,” Adrien responded. “Normal is having to steal glances at you when you’re not looking. Normal is just imagining what this would feel like because I’d never be able to obtain it.”

 

Marinette pondered this for a moment or two. “Do you remember at Alya’s birthday party senior year when we were playing truth or dare?”

 

Adrien nodded. “I do, yeah.”

 

“And you had to leave early?”

 

“Yeah, I was so upset.”

 

“Alya had promised me she was going to dare you to kiss me,” she giggled. “Boy, she was a great wingman.”

 

“Nino wanted me to ask you to prom,” Adrien recalled. “He said I should have asked you because we were such great friends and it would have been fun.”

 

“But you went with Chloe.”

 

“My dad made us go together,” he admitted. “I don’t know why it was such a big deal I went with her.”

 

“I used to be so jealous of her.”

 

Adrien laughed. “You? Jealous of her? You’ve got a heart of gold. I’m not even sure Chloe has a heart.”

 

Marinette snorted. “It sounds silly when you say it like that.”

 

Adrien tangled his fingers loosely in Marinette’s hair. “I understand it, though. I don’t understand how you didn’t beat her up, however.”

 

The two talked late into the night about anything and nothing. Adrien drifted to sleep first, his breath slowing. Marinette wasn’t too long after; she fell asleep loosely holding Adrien’s hand with her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. When they woke up the next morning, Adrien was spooning her from behind, the two still holding hands.

 

Adrien woke up first. He noticed where he was and sighed in content, sleepily kissing the back of Marinette’s neck to wake her. She mumbled something and rolled over, placing a soft kiss on his lips and wrapping her leg overtop of his, still half asleep. Adrien smiled and pulled her closer, relishing her sleepy warmth.

 

The two lay in bed for about fifteen minutes after waking up, sleepily exchanging good morning kisses and feeling each other’s bodies that they’d been longing to touch for far too long.

 

These sleepy touches began to escalate. Adrien brushed the hair away from Marinette’s face and kissed her with more passion than before; Marinette lifted Adrien’s shirt and let her fingers trace the indents of his abs. The two pressed their chests together, legs tangling underneath the covers. 

 

Adrien cupped Marinette’s hip, pulling her closer. Marinette finally broke the kiss, looking up at Adrien with wide-awake eyes, panting ever so softly, lips ever so swollen. “Adrien,” she whispered, both as a question and a warning.

 

“Sorry,” he mumbled, blushing. “I’ve just been waiting a long time to do that…”

 

“Me too…”

 

“Do you have class today?”

 

“Yeah, I do most days.”

 

“Is it an important class?”

 

“Adrien…”

 

“Is it?”

 

“Yes, but…” Marinette feigned a cough. “I think I’m coming down with something.”


	8. Technically Chapter 6, Actually Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She felt as though she were trapped in a pool of molasses, and she could barely keep her eyes open. She could not hear him, but through squinted eyes she could see Chat running for her…
> 
> ...and that was all she saw before her vision faded at the edges, and she slipped into a deep sleep that she was unsure she would ever awaken from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ladies and gents, I made it to college! I've been a bit busy lately with classes starting and such but I was finally able to sit down and write you guys (not one, but) two chapters! I'm really excited where this story is going and I hope you guys are too. I know, I know, it's also kinda shitty, but let's face it: I wasn't going to let our superheros have their happily ever after in chapter 5 (and a half). Thank you all for staying tuned, and let me know what you think of this chapter and where the story is going!

Tikki and Plagg awoke to the sound of Marinette giggling in the loft. Tikki rubbed her eyes sleepily and looked at the clock. Her eyes widened and she flew up the stairs quickly. “Marinette! You’re late for--”

 

Tikki froze. Marinette was awake, for sure; the girl was straddling Adrien’s lap, her arms around his neck, her forehead touching his. She was either ignoring Tikki or hadn’t heard the Kwami, what with her attention entirely on the model below her.

 

Adrien, however, did notice her. He peeked around Marinette and smiled sheepishly, a blush creeping to his face. “Ah, um, Marinette...isn’t feeling well.” Boy, was he a terrible liar.

 

“She looks fine,” Tikki said with a huff.

 

Now that Adrien had addressed the Kwami, Marinette felt she had to as well. She crawled out of Adrien’s lap and sat down next to him. “This isn’t an everyday thing,” she promised. “I’m taking a mental health day.”

 

“And I suppose Adrien is doing the same?” Tikki was obviously annoyed. Marinette giggled softly and nuzzled into his side.

 

“Is there anything wrong with that?” Marinette asked politely. “I have class almost every day, and the days I don’t have class, Adrien has a photo shoot. I don’t see a problem in skipping class once to spend time with my partner.”

 

Partner. Marinette blushed. Even though they’d been using the term since they became superhero partners, the word now felt different. Adrien wrapped his arm around her waist and nuzzled her cheek with his nose, smiling. Tikki sighed and shook her head.

 

“Fine, as long as this isn’t going to become a regular thing,” the Kwami said with another sigh. She didn’t like the feel of this. They seemed too distracted with each other.

 

Marinette didn’t even respond; she was too busy kissing her partner by now. The two were like horny high schoolers, and eventually Tikki just let them be. After all, she was barely the size of a softball; what could she really do?

 

It proved to be a wonderful coincidence that the two had chosen that particular day to skip class; directly outside, the two lazy superheroes heard a shrill scream from the street below. Immediately both of them broke from their embrace and leapt to their feet. Marinette could barely call Tikki’s name before she was up in the loft next to her, eagerly awaiting her call of “spots on!”

 

“Plagg, claws out!” Adrien cried, transforming as Marinette did. When their masks were on, Chat gave Ladybug a silent nod, then cracked open the circular window above the bed and dove through it. 

 

Ladybug was just a step behind him, and soon they were hurtling rooftops side by side. “Down there!” Chat exclaimed to her, pointing down to the street below, where a large water-creature was swallowing every item in its path. The two could see strollers, bicycles, and even cars floating around inside the monster.

 

She swung her yo-yo around a streetlamp near the monster and yanked. Chat was less than half a beat behind her. Soon they were on ground level, staring up at this being; it was a few stories tall and about as wide as half the road. Chat searched for his partner’s gaze to comfort him, as he usually did in these situations, but she was staring intently at the monster, her eyes darting around it. He could tell she was searching for the object she’d have to break.

 

Her searching was interrupted when the creature swung its fist at her. She leapt out of the way and watched the water fist crack the street where she had just been, practically inhaling the debris from the road. “He’s strong, all right!” she cried to her partner, who was now running around the back side of the monster as a sort of distraction.

 

“Cats and water really don’t mix well!” he yelled back, activating his staff and launching himself onto a balcony opening out to the street. He caught the water creature’s eye and taunted it by jumping from balcony to balcony.

 

Ladybug took the opportunity to search the monster. She was beginning to get nervous. Finding the akumatized object never took longer than thirty seconds of searching. She was beginning to wonder if it even  _ had  _ an akumatized object. This certainly was unlike anything else they’d ever fought; most often they fought humanoid nineties-style villains. After forty-five seconds of her partner leaping from rooftop to rooftop and still had no luck, she began to get worried.

 

“Chat, I don’t think this thing’s got one!”

 

“What do you mean?!” Chat leapt across the street, activating his staff and pole-vaulting in the process. This was uncharted territory for them.

 

Unfortunately, in their cross-street discussion, both of them failed to recognize that the water creature had gotten bored with Chat’s acrobatics. The fist came down in what appeared to be slow motion, and suddenly Ladybug was swallowed; she felt as though she were trapped in a pool of molasses, and she could barely keep her eyes open. She could not hear him, but through squinted eyes she could see Chat running for her…

 

...and that was all she saw before her vision faded at the edges, and she slipped into a deep sleep that she was unsure she would ever awaken from.

 

***

 

Marinette awoke in what appeared to be her parents’ home. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, feeling a sudden sharp pain in her head. She drew in a sharp breath, which gathered the attention of her parents, who were in the kitchen. Her mother rushed to her side.

 

“Marinette? Are you awake?”

 

Marinette nodded weakly, blinking a few more times as her vision slowly came back. “I think,” she mumbled in a raspy voice. She winced as another sharp pain pinged in her head.

 

As her vision returned and she cracked her eyes open, she noticed that not only were her parents here, Alya and Adrien were behind them, peering over their shoulders at her. Her father was in front of them, seemingly unintentionally blocking them from getting closer. Her mother was hovering over her, now, with an ice pack in her hand.

 

“Can you sit up, honey?” she asked softly, and Marinette attempted to prop herself up on her elbows. The sharp pain she felt became a throbbing and angry tears welled up in her eyes. She felt helpless and weak as her mother helped lift her head gently to place the ice pack on the pillow under her head.

 

“What happened?” Mari asked softly. Her father and mother sat on the couch across from her, and Adrien and Alya sat on the floor near her.

 

“Well…” her father muttered, scratching the back of his neck.

 

“You took in a lot of water,” Adrien explained. “With, um, that monster. I don’t know how much you remember…”

 

“The doctor said your short term memory might be a bit fuzzy for a while,” Alya added, “so we figured we’d hang around and kinda help to, ya know, jog it?”

 

“Monster?” Marinette attempted to sit up again and cried out a little bit as a sharp jolt of pain pounded her head. Her mother stood up quickly and made a motion as if to silently ask if Marinette needed her. She dismissed her with a small hand gesture. 

 

“It was a giant water monster,” Adrien said. “You couldn’t find the akumatized object, and it swallowed you up in its fist. Then it...spit you out.”

 

“From twelve feet up,” Alya added.

 

Marinette blinked, then blinked again. She looked blankly from one friend to the other, and opened her mouth to say something when a loud thud came from the door, followed by frantic knocking.

 

“Hey, can someone let me in?!” a familiar voice cried from outside.

 

“Nino,” Alya rolled her eyes and stood, stretching before leisurely walking to the door. When she opened it, a frantic Nino fell to the ground in a heap, panting and searching the room.

 

“How is she?! I just woke up! I slept through my alarms!”

 

“Nino?” Marinette asked. His frantic talking was making her head hurt more than before. “Can you quiet down a bit?”

 

“Sorry!” Nino replied in a whisper-shout. He crossed the room and sat down on the floor next to Adrien, gazing worriedly at her. 

 

The pain was making Marinette dizzy. She felt herself drifting in and out of consciousness, now, and grabbed at the couch cushion to steady herself. Adrien crawled over to her and rested his hand on hers, watching her with sad, scared eyes. She looked down at their hands and felt herself blush a little; her high school crush was holding her hand! Her mind started churning with various questions: Was he only doing this because she’d been injured? Did he know she liked him and was trying to make her feel better? Was he actually into her?

 

The worrying made her feel sick, and she moved her hand away. Adrien’s face turned even more somber at this, and Marinette wondered why. She didn’t have time to answer herself, however, as she slipped back into a black, silky dream from which she wouldn’t awaken for two days.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So I gave up my ring. She was dying in there. That thing got her earrings and then just...melted. It melted into a pool of water that turned into thousands of those ugly butterflies, and she fell, and I couldn’t catch her because I was no longer Chat Noir, ya know?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2/2 of my update for today! Thank you guys for reading, whether you're new or you've been with it from the beginning! I've been working hard today on updating (I'm gonna shoot for yet another chapter on top of this one) because it's been a while since I've had some quality time to sit down and write, and I'm basking in it right now. Thank you all for the support and everything. Hopefully I'll be able to update more this weekend, since I'm taking the day off for my birthday on the 15th! Crazy--this year is flying by. Anyways, enough of my rambling. Please enjoy this new chapter!

Somebody had moved her. That was the first thing she noticed when she woke up. Somebody had moved her up to the loft which used to be her bedroom. She looked around at the walls, which had been painted over with a light gray, then at the bed, which was very plainly bedded. It just felt sad. She looked around at the otherwise empty room; the only thing left from when she lived here was the painting she’d done back in high school, and even then it was tucked neatly into the corner.

 

She closed her eyes. The light burned more than usual. As she did so, she heard footsteps up the narrow ladder to her room. She heard the door swing open and a soft call of her name. Her eyelids felt heavy and she barely made a noise. Another voice called her name, a little louder, but she couldn’t make any acknowledgement of hearing them.

 

“Damn, I thought maybe she’d be ready to wake up by now,” a voice she now recognized as Alya’s said with a sigh.

 

“She took a pretty big fall,” another voice responded. Adrien. She tried to move something, anything, but her body felt heavy and the most she could muster with the little strength she had was a slight tapping of her fingers.

 

“Explain this to me again,” Alya said as she sat on the ground near the bed. “I’m not quite sure I get it.”

 

“She’s Ladybug,” Adrien began. “Does that part register?”

 

“Not in the slightest, but go on.”

 

“Well, while she was looking for the akumatized object--you know, the one she destroys and the butterfly comes out of--I was distracting the thing. It got bored with me, I guess, and it went after her. I didn’t even have time to warn her. The thing swallowed her whole, and the only way it’d let her go is if I gave up my Miraculous. The ring, you know. I’m Chat Noir.”

 

“See, that’s what you were forgetting to tell me. Go on, I’ll fangirl later.”

 

“So I gave up my ring. She was dying in there. That thing got her earrings and then just...melted. It melted into a pool of water that turned into thousands of those ugly butterflies, and she fell, and I couldn’t catch her because I was no longer Chat Noir, ya know?”

 

Alya took a deep breath. “I can’t imagine what that was like. Like, your partner just falling and--” she paused for a second. “Is that why you were at her apartment that one time?”

 

“Exactly,” he even chuckled a bit. “I was there because I’d gotten injured in the battle the night before. She carried me all the way back to her apartment; I’m surprised she was even able to life me. I was dead weight.”

 

Alya chuckled as well. “I can’t believe I never figured it out. Marinette always got jumpy when I mentioned Ladybug to her. Or the LadyBlog. Wow, and she was right under my nose the entire time.”

 

There was a call from downstairs. “Alya, Adrien, would one of you come help me do the dishes?”

 

“I got it,” Alya said before Adrien could even offer. “Call me if she wakes up.” 

 

Marinette could hear shuffling, then the sound of the door opening and closing, then more shuffling and a shift of the bed as Adrien sat down on it. 

 

Adrien let out a long sigh. “How could I have let this happen?” he asked the open air, as if awaiting a response. Marinette desperately wished her voice would come back so she could tell him it wasn’t his fault. She tried to pry her eyes open and to move her hand once more; this time, she was able to squint and move her hand closer to his.

 

He didn’t notice. She groaned inwardly and tried harder, exerting more physical force than it took her to hoist herself up buildings or fight akumatized victims. Her arm slumped and rolled a bit, and her lips parted. She breathed heavily and her forehead scrunched with determination.

 

Adrien finally glanced at her and said, “Oh. Oh! Marinette!” The realization struck him and he stood immediately.

 

“Light,” Marinette mumbled, still squinting.

 

“Night? No, it’s the middle of the day,” Adrien replied.

 

“Light,” she said a little louder, and she coughed. He quickly caught on and drew the curtains in front of the windows.

 

“Better?” he asked her after closing all the curtains in the room. She found herself able to open her eyes all the way now. He smiled. “I’ve missed ya, Bugaboo.”

 

Marinette blushed at the way he spoke to her. Had something changed in him while she was under? She could now start to feel the pain in her head returning and winced in anticipation. “Are you okay?” Adrien asked softly, gently rubbing the girl’s forehead. She wanted to shy away from him.

 

“Why are you…” she coughed. Adrien pulled his hand back, realizing she wasn’t welcoming his touch. A frown spread across his face. 

 

“I-I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I guess I expected…”

 

The sound of a plate shattering erupted from the floor below, followed by Alya shrieking an apology. “Oh, she wanted to know when you woke up,” he said as a second thought. He walked over to the door and leaned out, calling to Alya. “She’s up!”

 

The sound of another plate being dropped into the sink followed, and following that was the sound of quick footsteps to Marinette’s old bedroom. Alya poked her head inside not seconds later, huffing a little, and smiled widely at her friend. Alya walked over to the side of the bed and rested her hand on Marinette’s forehead as Adrien had. Marinette didn’t shy away from her.

 

“Hiya, champ,” she said through a bright smile. “How are you feeling?”

 

“In pain,” Marinette croaked. Now that she’d been talking a bit, she realized how dry her throat was. “Water?” she asked softly, looking around slowly for perhaps a water bottle.

 

“Adrien, can you get her some water and something to eat?” Alya asked sweetly. Adrien disappeared with a simple nod. She then returned her attention to Marinette. “You’ve got around thirty stitches total,” she explained. “Mostly in your shoulder. Your head’s got some too, though.” 

 

“What happened?” 

 

“You were fighting, and the bastard swallowed you,” Alya said with a soft smile. “You’re a tough cookie, but damn, I didn’t know you were  _ that  _ tough.”

 

Marinette smiled weakly as Alya continued. “You were damn near dead by the time Adrien got you home. Your lungs were full of water and everything; we had a doctor come to the house to take care of you, fix you up. He gave you eight stitches in your head, by your right ear, and the other twenty-two are down your right shoulder and back. We’re so lucky you’re alive, honey.”

 

Adrien reappeared with a glass of water, a small sandwich, and two pain pills. “Are you de-briefing her?” he asked as he set the stuff down on the bedside table. Alya helped Marinette sit up to take a drink.

 

“I’m to the part about the stitches, do you want to take over while I go let Nino know?”

 

“Alright,” he said as Alya finished helping Marinette up and went to retrieve Nino.

 

“Nino’s here too?” Marinette asked softly. Her voice was so unused to being awake, let alone speaking, that she hardly sounded like herself.

 

“Of course Nino’s here,” Adrien said with a smile as he held out a half of the sandwich to her. She took it gratefully and ate slowly. “He was here practically the second he got the news. You’re one of his best friends.”

 

“Mm,” Marinette mumbled through a mouthful of sandwich.

 

“What do you remember, Marinette?” Adrien asked hesitantly, looking away from her as he asked. She thought for a second, swallowed, and took a sip of water before responding.

 

“I remember us...struggling, and getting injured a lot,” she closed her eyes to think and winced slightly in pain. “We went to Master Fu, I think? It gets fuzzy after that…”

 

“Do you remember why we struggled?”

 

“Um, no--”

 

Nino forced the door open and smiled cheerfully at Marinette. “How’s my favorite superhero doing?”

 

“He knows?!” Marinette began to panic. “Who knows?!”

 

“Uh, well...the thing is, Mari,” Alya peeked out from behind Nino, “...everyone knows.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, this chapter was so hard to write because I knew how I wanted it to end but I didn't know how to get there. I hope this bombshell doesn't scare you off! I really do have a plan in mind! I'll try to get the next chapter out soon so you don't have to suffer for long!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She looked down at the drink; this hot chocolate would officially be the first of the season. “You know, hot cocoa really isn’t a summer drink because--”
> 
> “Summer is for fruity flavors,” Adrien cut her off, smiling a cute, lopsided grin over his shoulder. Marinette didn’t recognize this smile from Adrien’s modeling; rather, she recognized it from Chat’s puns and shenanigans. She inwardly face-palmed, wondering how she could have missed all the signs pointing towards him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three chapters in one day?! This is the most peculiar thing I've ever done! I've just been filled with so much inspiration for the past couple weeks and it all came out today when I finally had time to sit down and just write. Thanks for reading! I hope you're all enjoying this! I know it took a sadder turn, but it's going to build back up to the good stuff, I promise! Thanks for your patience with my erratic updating schedule, and let me know what your thoughts are on the story!

It had been three days since Marinette woke up in her old bedroom. Per her parents’ request, she stayed at home. Alya and Adrien had taken it upon themselves to contact all Marinette’s professors to gather what she’d need to complete her classes, while Nino composed her music that would soothe her headaches. She felt utterly helpless being holed up in the house; however, the light still made her head pound and she wasn’t recovering her strength fast.

 

Alya spent the night every night with her. She had even taken it upon herself to retrieve an old mattress from the closet and lug it up to the guest room, which Marinette rarely left. Nino had dropped off an old television that was quite big and boxy, but it worked. Adrien typically brought her food from her favorite places. The two girls remained holed up together, except for when Alya had class, which was when Marinette would do her own mounds of homework.

 

It was one of those times when Alya was gone that Adrien came to see her. He had a small bag from the local cafe as well as two drinks in a drink carrier. Before he could even say hello, he set the food and drinks down and walked over to the window, carefully cracking it open so the blinds would stay put. “The autumn breeze today is truly amazing,” he explained, “plus it’s a bit cloudy, so if the blinds do blow up it should be a nice way to reintroduce you to sunlight.”

 

“Thank you,” Marinette said shyly. She looked down at the drink; this hot chocolate would officially be the first of the season. “You know, hot cocoa really isn’t a summer drink because--”

 

“Summer is for fruity flavors,” Adrien cut her off, smiling a cute, lopsided grin over his shoulder. Marinette didn’t recognize this smile from Adrien’s modeling; rather, she recognized it from Chat’s puns and shenanigans. She inwardly face-palmed, wondering how she could have missed all the signs pointing towards him. Suddenly she was hit with a memory she didn’t know she possessed of a late night conversation with Chat.

 

_ “My parents don’t like hot cocoa. They think it’s much better to make fudge or brownies. They’re such bakers, I don’t think they truly understand the concept and how different it is.” _

 

_ “Right. I would love to have hot cocoa again.” _

 

_ “Well, why can’t you?” _

 

_ “I--er, I’m watching my figure.” _

 

_ “I think my abs look great paired with a large hot cocoa every day.” _

 

_ “Fair point, fair point, but my career doesn’t allow for it.” _

 

_ “Oh come on, a little hot cocoa can’t hurt that much.” _

 

_ “Well then, let’s go get some!” _

 

_ “What are you thinking?! It’s summer, silly! Summer’s a season for fruity drinks and nothing more. Hot drinks just make the day hotter. I’ll never understand people who can drink coffee period, but people who drink hot coffee on hot days make me sick.” _

 

The conversation came back to her in full force. She wondered just how much she had forgotten as she gripped her head. She groaned, and Adrien was immediately at her side.

 

“Something wrong, Bugaboo?” he could barely contain his nickname for her.

 

“Just thinking,” she admitted with a soft sigh. “Thinking…”

 

“About?” Adrien sat down on the bed next to her as she reached for the hot cocoa he had gotten her. He grabbed his own drink and lifted a soup and a sandwich out of the bag.

 

“An old conversation,” she responded. “Kinda hurts, actually.”

 

“What conversation?” Adrien asked as calmly as he could; he was patiently awaiting the return of Marinette’s memory of what had happened between them.

 

“It was about hot cocoa, believe it or not,” she sighed. “I doubt you’d remember, really. It’s such a small detail…”

 

“You know, I think I might actually remember,” he replied. “When you yelled at me for offering to get hot cocoa at one am? Not because of the time, but because of the season?”

 

“That’s the one,” Marinette giggled. She coughed a bit and drank some of her hot cocoa. She tapped her fingernails on the side of the cup and stared down at it contemplatively. Finally, she asked, “Will you help me redress the stitches? Usually Alya does, but she’s at school and they’re getting pretty itchy…”

 

“U-um, yes, I can,” Adrien responded. Sure, he’d redressed plenty of Marinette’s wounds before, especially during the period when they were getting seriously injured by any little monster they encountered. Somehow this felt different. It felt more intimate, he supposed. However, he knew she probably didn’t feel the same. The injury seemed to eliminate all memory of their kiss, or their modeling mission, or even their night together afterward. 

 

She turned to face away from him and lifted her shirt using only her left arm. She carefully pulled her right arm through the sleeve and left the neck draped over her left side. Consequently, she was more or less exposed to anyone who might walk in; luckily, everyone who may be visiting knew this and knocked before entering. 

 

Adrien stared at the bandages, memorizing the pattern to follow when redressing, then carefully pulled them back. Marinette hissed softly in pain and gripped her leg. “You alright?” Adrien asked cautiously, and she nodded, so he continued. He was able to remove the bandage after a couple minutes of careful tugs, and he stared in wonder at the wound.

 

The stitches in the wound were done meticulously, and in a red-and-black pattern. He scoffed. The doctor must have been a fan, he thought. The wound itself was healing rather well; however, the skin around it was badly bruised. The wound resembled the shape of a long, lopsided L; it traced the inner corner of her shoulder blade, followed down to the small of her back, then dropped down towards her right hip at the very end. 

 

“Hey, it’s kinda cold,” Marinette murmured.

 

“R-right! Sorry!” He went to work redressing the wound with gauze left in the bedside table drawer. 

 

When he had finished with her back, she carefully pulled her right arm back through the arm hole and returned the shirt to its position. He carefully brushed the hair away from the wound on her head, tying up Marinette’s hair in a way she didn’t remember teaching him. He then peeled the bandage away and saw the large area they had to shave to stitch the wound. She made a soft noise--a mix between a groan of pain and a cry of sadness, he thought--and Adrien so desperately wanted to kiss the back of her neck and tell her it would be alright. Instead, he settled for asking her if she was in pain.

 

“It’s not that,” she replied softly. “It’s--it’s really silly, actually.”

 

“You can tell me, Mari…”

 

“God, I can’t even look at light,” she cried suddenly. “I’m useless. I should be out there, fighting.” She sat up straighter suddenly. “Tikki?” she called. “Tikki, where have you been?”

 

“Marinette--”

 

“Tikki!” her voice became more and more panicked.

 

“Marinette, I need you to calm down--”

 

“Where is she?!” she whipped her head around very suddenly, sending an ache through her skull so painful she cried out and collapsed into him. He gently rubbed her head, being careful to avoid the wound, while she continued to ask where her kwami partner was.

 

“I don’t know how to tell you this, Mari, but...Tikki isn’t here. She’s with our Miraculouses.”

 

“With...our?” she questioned, reaching up to her left ear. A horrified look struck her face as she realized the earrings she hadn’t taken off once since she received them six years prior were indeed gone. Her eyes widened, and Adrien could see another worried shriek ready to spill from her lips. He gently cupped her cheek, and she shied away. He sighed.

 

“That water thing ripped your earrings out before it dropped you. By then a lot of people, including about every news reporter in France, was gathered around. So...everyone knows you’re, well, you.”

 

“And what about you?” she croaked, her throat becoming dry again suddenly. He simply held up his hand to reveal his missing ring. She gasped in terror.

 

“It was the only way to get you back.”

 

“But Adrien--”

 

There was a knock at the door. “Is everything alright?” came a somewhat muffled voice. It was Marinette’s mother. “I heard a scream come from up here. Can I come in?”

 

“Yes,” Adrien called, helping Marinette sit up somewhere other than right in front of him. She cracked open the door.

 

“Oh, Adrien, I see you changed the bandages. And you brought lunch, too? That’s very sweet of you! Marinette is very lucky.”

 

“He’s a great superhero partner,” Marinette agreed with a shy blush. She smiled over at him. “Thank you, Adrien.”

 

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile. “But I really have to go. My modeling career is going to be twice as hard now that the truth is out. I haven’t really gone outside yet, if I’m honest.” He stood and stretched.

 

Marinette stole a glance at him as his shirt lifted and showed off that perfect set of abs that had become more and more defined under Chat’s skin-tight supersuit over the years they trained. She blushed brighter than before and buried her head in her hands. Marinette’s mother was immediately concerned.

 

“Marinette? Is your head in pain? Have you taken any medication lately?” She rushed to her daughter’s side while Adrien carefully slipped out of the door--but not after grabbing the hot cocoa he had gotten for himself.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I miss Tikki. I miss being Ladybug. I miss going outside,” she groaned. “I’m feeling better. I am, really.”
> 
> He was struck with an idea suddenly, and he quickly pulled out his phone and sent a text. “Well, I can help with one of those things, if you’ll allow me to,” he said with his lopsided smile. “Let’s go take a walk.”
> 
> “But the sun--”
> 
> “Yes, it’s bright, but the blinds are wide open in here and you’re absolutely fine! How about this: I’ve got an extra dark pair of sunglasses for when I don’t want people to notice me. I’m sure they’ll work great to block out the sun.”
> 
> Marinette seemed to ponder this for a minute. Finally, she grinned and nodded. “You’re right. I can’t be scared to do it. That’s not who Ladybug is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I have some really big plans coming up, buuuuuut they might not be the most canonical, so I'm really asking you all to bear with me. If it isn't your cup of tea, please don't read only to make yourself upset; however, I will try my best to keep it as canonically accurate as possible aside from where I'm taking the story from here. I'm also looking for a RP partner for Miraculous Ladybug! It's been a very long time since I've RPed and I love putting creative minds together and writing something amazing. Anyways, aside from that, thanks for reading thus far and I hope you continue to read and enjoy my fic! I've been putting a whole lot into it and I appreciate all the support you've given me. Thank you!

Adrien had become increasingly frustrated with Marinette’s lack of knowledge of their relationship status. He didn’t show it to anyone; rather, he tried to leave little bread crumb trails for his partner to hopefully come back to him soon. He thought for sure the hot cocoa would do the trick, and while it had brought back a memory, it wasn’t the one he was hoping for. Therefore, in the few days following where Marinette was still mostly bedridden, he tried to jog her memory in every way possible.

 

On this particular trial run, Adrien was bringing Marinette a bowl of popcorn and a blanket while suggesting the same awful flick they’d barely gotten through twenty minutes of. He cracked open the door to her bedroom after knocking. She was sitting up in the bed, which had been redecorated with some of Marinette’s favorite pillows and blankets. She looked up from the tablet in her lap when he entered and smiled warmly at him. “Hey, I thought you were busy today?”

 

“Change of plans,” he shrugged off his cancellation of his photo shoot and crossed the room. “How do you feel about a movie and some popcorn?”

 

“I’m really hungry,” she responded with a smile, “so the popcorn sounds nice. What movie is it?”

 

“Some sort of rom-com,” he replied as he gently handed her the bowl of popcorn and the same blanket from that night (which he’d gratefully convinced Alya to retrieve from Marinette’s apartment  for this very purpose).

 

“Anything to get me away from this homework,” Marinette sighed, setting her tablet aside and wrapping the blanket around herself. The room was a little chilly; Adrien had made a habit of cracking the windows open during the day to both air out the room and slowly introduce Marinette to light again. The blinds were completely drawn by now.

 

Adrien walked over to the large box television donation and inserted the disc into the DVD player he’d brought a couple nights earlier for her. “Do you mind if I sit on the bed with you?” he asked softly as the movie began playing.

 

“N-not at all,” she blushed. He crossed the room and sat down, giving her plenty of space, despite his inner self yelling at him to hold her tight.

 

He’d been going back and forth with himself for the past weeks since the accident. Should he push harder? Should he let it be? What if she never remembered? Would he have to suffer another half decade just to get back to where they were? He swore his brain was in constant battle with itself on the answers to all these questions, and quite honestly it was giving him some headaches as well.

 

The movie played. Marinette seemed to be enjoying the break from homework--the film, not so much. She laid down about ten minutes in and Adrien thought he could hear her snoring about halfway through. However, when the movie was over she sat up and stretched as if she’d never been asleep.

 

“How was it?” Adrien asked, inwardly crossing his fingers that it spiked some sort of memory.

 

“It was just like any other rom-com,” Marinette shrugged.

 

“Nothing special?”

 

“Not really.”

 

“Not at all?”

 

“I dunno, Adrien,” she sighed tiredly, then faced him on the bed. “Everything leading up to the accident is so hazy.”

 

Adrien got the impression she was no longer talking about the movie.

 

“I miss Tikki. I miss being Ladybug. I miss going outside,” she groaned. “I’m feeling better. I am, really.”

 

He was struck with an idea suddenly, and he quickly pulled out his phone and sent a text. “Well, I can help with one of those things, if you’ll allow me to,” he said with his lopsided smile. “Let’s go take a walk.”

 

“But the sun--”

 

“Yes, it’s bright, but the blinds are wide open in here and you’re absolutely fine! How about this: I’ve got an extra dark pair of sunglasses for when I don’t want people to notice me. I’m sure they’ll work great to block out the sun.”

 

Marinette seemed to ponder this for a minute. Finally, she grinned and nodded. “You’re right. I can’t be scared to do it. That’s not who Ladybug is.”

 

Adrien left the room while Marinette changed into clothes acceptable to wear in public. While she changed, he informed Marinette’s parents that they were going to try taking a walk to get her some fresh air. 

 

“If she looks at all woozy, take her back here,” her dad said sternly. “I hope you have a keen eye, because she’s not one to admit when she isn’t feeling alright.”

 

“If I may, sir,” Adrien replied politely, “that was one of the first things I learned being her partner.”

 

***

 

The steps took a while. Marinette took each step carefully, with Adrien supporting her back, and by placing both feet on a step before moving to the next. Adrien did not complain. She was overjoyed when she reached the bottom, gazing out of the bakery storefront to the people walking around and the bright sunshine she’d been so hesitant to enjoy. 

 

Adrien smiled at this look of wonder she wore. “Are you ready, Mari?” he asked gently, and she nodded. He walked her to the door and pushed it open for her.

 

She blinked a few times to let her eyes adjust and scrunched her forehead up in what appeared to be pain. “Are you alright?” Adrien asked quickly, and she nodded just as quickly.

 

“I think I need those sunglasses, is all.”

 

He put them on her very carefully, watching for her right ear. She hissed softly but insisted it didn’t hurt, it just surprised her. He skeptically allowed it, but he kept a close eye on her from then on.

 

They walked through downtown very slowly and casually. They tried to avoid eye contact with people; after all, neither of them had been outside since the news revealed both their true identities.

 

Adrien led the girl towards a large park near the center of a residential area. She began to recognize it as the park where they had fought a sort of teddy bear-like monster on Valentine’s Day just a few months before the identity reveal. She giggled, recollecting the fight. Adrien had gotten his feet stuck in melted heart chocolates and was content with licking at it to get out, while Marinette dodged heart-shaped lollipop swords. 

 

_ “Chat, can you please think of something more effective to get you out of there?” Ladybug cried, though even she couldn’t contain her laughter. _

 

_ “M’lady, if only you knew that this chocolate is as sweet as you. Then you’d understand.” He began licking it like a cat. _

 

_ She used her yo-yo to rope the teddy bear’s arms together as it tried to attack her in this moment of weakness. “You’re gonna have to try harder than that,” she laughed warmly, successfully ripping the sword from its hands and smashing it on the ground.  _

 

_ This object had been different. It seemed that HawkMoth’s powers had altered the shape and size of it to fit the villain’s needs. She hadn’t thought much of it at the time, because it was such an easy defeat. With a bright swarm of light, the akuma was caught and returned to its initial pure stage. _

 

_ Chat huffed as the chocolate disappeared from his feet and sat criss-crossed in the middle of the grass. “Could you have given me just a little more time? I would have gotten out eventually…” _

 

_ The teddy bear slowly became a young boy, probably around sixteen, holding a small teddy bear in one hand and a heart lollipop in the other. There was a love note in the teddy bear’s arms. Ladybug approached him and he looked around, scared. _

 

_ “Are you gonna arrest me?” he asked nervously. _

 

_ “That’s not really how this works,” she giggled and smiled warmly at him. “Whoever she was, she won’t matter very soon, I think. You’ll find someone who will love and appreciate such a gift. Speaking of,” she looked back over her shoulder at Chat, “would you believe he hasn’t gotten me anything?” she chuckled. “You fight crime together for years and--” _

 

_ “He,” he interrupted suddenly and hung his head. _

 

_ “I’m sorry?” _

 

_ “It’s a he. He rejected me.” _

 

_ “Oh, excuse me for being inconsiderate,” Ladybug hastily apologized. “But, the same still stands. If he can’t see how great you are, then why waste any time on him? Find someone who loves you just as much as you love them.” _

 

_ Later, when Ladybug was relaying this information back to Chat on an apartment rooftop, he looked at her very sternly. “Have you ever taken your own advice?” _

 

_ “What do you mean?” _

 

_ “Well, you’re always telling me about that boy that you’ve loved since high school. He doesn’t seem to pay you any mind, so why waste the time?” _

 

_ Ladybug pondered this for a few minutes. “I think, it’s different.” _

 

_ “How is that possibly different?” _

 

_ “He was part of my friend group for a majority of high school,” she said. “I legitimately thought I may have a chance. After senior year, though, he drifted off and left me hanging onto something that I never truly experienced, but I thought I did.” _

 

_ Chat wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. _

 

_ “What about you, pretty kitty?” _

 

_ “Me? Well, I’d say chasing you is like chasing a train. You’re always so far ahead of me, but if I’m lucky and arrive in time one day, I’ll catch you when you’re stopped and holy cow this is a weird analogy.” _

 

_ The two laughed together, swaying a little as they did, and it was then that Ladybug truly felt she would be happy with whoever Chat turned out to be under that mask. _

 

They saw a figure sitting on a far bench in the park. He happened to be the only one there at the time, and it didn’t take long to deduce why: upon further inspection, icicles hung from tree leaves and the grass was frosty. As they approached, they saw the smiling, familiar face of Master Fu.

 

“I asked him to meet us here,” Adrien explained to a confused Marinette. “To help jog some of the more stubborn memories.”

 

He stood to greet them, relying more heavily on his cane than in the past, it seemed. They bowed to him and he shook his hand dismissively. “Let’s walk,” he said in a somewhat grainy voice. “I need some exercise.”

 

So the three walked together, Master Fu in between them, and for the most part they were silent. They walked through the park, around a fountain which had been frozen into a terrifying, piercing ice statue, and towards the outer fence, which revealed that beyond the park everything seemed normal.

 

Fu broke the silence. “Your identities have been compromised.”

 

“Yes, sir,” Adrien said after a moment.

 

“What does that mean for us?” Marinette added.

 

“It means nothing for you, my dear,” he replied, lifting up her hair to look at the wound. She had stopped bandaging it by now and the bruising was beginning to yellow and heal. “Mm, that was a nasty spill. I don’t want you anywhere near combat for a long while yet.”

 

“But sir--”

 

“Marinette,” he said sternly. “You almost died. Should you get hurt again, especially before this wound heals, and you’ll be gone for sure.”

 

“What happened to the park?” Adrien asked softly to take the heat off his partner.

 

“It’s a beast I haven’t seen for decades,” Fu mumbled with a sort of fearful look. “An elemental. It does quite the damage.”

 

“I can see that,” Marinette sighed. “Where’s its akumatized object?”

 

“Well, you see, that’s where it gets tricky. There wasn’t always an ‘object’, so to speak. It was in most ways considered a simple possession--as in, the bug entered the person’s system in ways unknown to even me, and the only way to remove it was to--well--”

 

“To kill them?” Adrien asked.

 

“It wasn’t the person their friends and families knew anymore,” Fu argued. “That way of magic was replaced with the way you and many superheroes before you knew, which is the enchanted object. The enchanted object was much easier to conjure, control, and eliminate for an evil villain such as HawkMoth. The art of possession became a way of the past when this method was discovered. Possessing a person rather than an object is the most physically draining act of magic anyone could ever perform.”

 

Both heroes listened intently to this. When he paused, Marinette interjected. “So you’re saying this is a possession?”

 

“Well, not entirely. See, there are different forms of possession, and while this may have started out as one, it surpassed that a long time ago. This creature has probably been brewing under our noses for months, if not years.”

 

“So how come it didn’t stop when it got our Miraculouses? Isn’t that all it wants?” Adrien asked confusedly.

 

“It’s a sentient being now, it appears,” Fu responded. “It likely doesn’t care one bit about your Miraculouses.”

 

“Then why did it take them?”

 

“It saw them as a source of power, maybe. I’m not sure.” They were coming upon a bridge now. The water underneath was choppy, and the waves were nearly spilling over the bridge. “Now it has more power.”

 

“What are you saying, point blank?” Marinette asked finally, watching the water warily. She usually enjoyed boat rides along the river below, but now it looked like anyone who braved the river would become seasick in a matter of seconds.

 

“I’m saying you’ll have to defeat the source. You’ll have to defeat HawkMoth.”

 

“Don’t we do that, like, every time there’s an akuma afoot?” Adrien asked.

 

“That’s not exactly it. Think of the akuma as an extension of his power, but even then only a sliver of it. He is much more powerful than your typical akumatized victim and, what’s more, the only way to defeat him is to steal his Miraculous. Well, Miraculouses now, I suppose.”

 

“All of this without our own Miraculouses?” Marinette questioned, tilting her head.

 

“Correct.”

 

“Ladybug!”

 

The cry startled all three of them, and they each turned to the source of the noise. A middle school-aged girl was running towards them, carrying a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other. “Ladybug, can I get your autograph?!”

 

Her screaming was drawing attention, and soon a small group of people of all ages were crowding the group. Adrien seemed to take most of the heat, being a famous figure both inside and out of the suit. The chatter was bringing on a headache for the recovering superheroine, and she rubbed her forehead. 

 

“Ladybug, you’re my hero!”

 

“Ladybug, you’re so cool!”

 

“Ladybug, will you take a picture with me?”

 

“That’s enough,” Adrien called sternly, noticing his partner’s current state. “Haven’t any of you seen in the news that she’s hurt? Today’s her first day outside since the accident. Please, some space.”

 

The small group disbanded with questioning mutters, mostly about the rudeness of the cat-man who was always kind to victims of attacks and of akumas themselves. Adrien sighed and wrapped his arm around Marinette’s shoulders. “Let’s head back, Mari. We can stop and pick up a prescription refill on the way.”

 

Marinette appreciated Adrien supporting her this way, and she wondered what would have happened if Chat wasn’t Adrien. She remembered thinking she would be fine with whoever the man under the mask was, but was that true? Would she have continued to pine for Adrien, or would she have rejected Chat altogether? She wondered how shallow she would have been; she sure had been in the past.

 

“Something on your mind?” Master Fu asked, watching Marinette somewhat worriedly.

 

“Ah, not much,” she responded softly. “Just wondering how I’ll adjust to not being Ladybug for awhile.”

 

“Well, it’s important you heal as completely as possible, so I doubt you’ll be seeing any combat anytime soon.”


End file.
